Tuesday 4 October 2011

Crocodile suddenly turns orange

A crocodile has suddenly and unexpectedly turned orange in Australia.

Worried keepers at Geelong, near Melbourne, thought the eight foot croc, known as Snappy, was on his last legs.

"I thought he was really sick. I thought he was dying," said his keeper Tracy Sandstrom, who runs a mobile reptile display called Roaming Reptiles.

But it turned out the crocodile, who sleeps in a heated bath at night, had been chewing on the water pipes, damaging the filter.

This caused the filter to stop working and pH levels in the water to rise.

Experts believe red algae or tannins from fallen leaves which would normally have stayed out of his water due the filter managed to get in, which combined with the raised pH led to the change in his colour.

In time he should return to his natural green colour.

"There's no change in his behaviour, his aggression, his territorialism. He's still a really nasty crocodile," said Ms Sandstrom.

"It's a collector's item now. Everyone will want one. I should have put him on eBay."

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Crocodile_suddenly_turns_orange

No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis